Wagner Ona Geography Year 11
The palm oil issue Tropical Rainforest Locations MAP 1
A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs mainly within the latitudes of 28 degrees north or south of the equator. This ecosystem has a high average of temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall. Rainforests can be found in many parts around the world, as shown in MAP 1. Tropical rainforest can be characterized in two ways: warm and wet. The mean monthly temperatures can exceed 18 °C (64 °F) during all months of the year. These Tropical rainforest exhibit high levels of biodiversity, they are the home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet. A single hectare of rainforest can contain 42,000 different species of insects, 807 trees of 313 species and 1,500 different plant species. They call the rainforests “world largest pharmacy, because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered within them. The rainforests are disappearing at a very high rate, this is due because it is only perceived as value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners. They are logging these rainforest to create new factories, extract palm oil and for fertile land. Palm oil is edible plant oil, high in saturated fats, that is derived from the fruit of the palm oil tree. There are two main species of palm oil tree: the African oil palm, and the American palm oil. A mature palm oil tree produces palm fruit that is reddish in color and about the size of a large plum with a single seed or kernel it grows in large bunches weighing up to 40-50 kilograms. Most of our products in the super market contain palm oil like bread, biscuits, chocolate, chips, sandwich spreads, instant noodles, shower cream and shampoo. Palm oil is obtained from the fruit (both the flesh and the kernel) of the oil palm tree; it contributes to the economic development of the producing countries and to the diets of millions of people around the world. Orangutans are one of the most species in danger when it comes to palm oil. Orangutans are great apes, as opposed to monkeys, and are closely related to humans, having 97% of DNA in common. Orangutans are extremely patient and intelligent mammals. They are very observant and inquisitive, and there many stories of orangutans escaping from the zoos after having watched their keepers unlock and lock doors. The orangutan’s rainforest is being felled for palm oil and other crops at a very high rate with the
Wagner Ona Geography Year 11
remaining forest being degraded by drought and forest fires. Extinction in the wild is likely in about 10 years for the Sumatran Orangutans and soon after for the Bornean Orangutans. This is a very big threat for the Orangutans as they are going to lose their homes and most likely to die. Between 1985 and 2007, Sumatra Island lost 12 million of hectares of natural forest, a 48 percent loss in 22 years. By 2007 the island had only 30 percent of natural forest covered, around 13 million hectares. Palm oils has increasing demands, this is due because most of the products we use, are partly made of palm oil. Its demand is growing fast and as I said most of it ends up in hundreds of foods products, for example margarine, chocolate, cream, chips and also it is used in cosmetics. But those are not its only demands. It also has increasing demands for damaging the rainforest and destroying orangutan’s homes. The countries where most of the palm oil is exploited are in Malaysia and Indonesia. I am going to talk about the palm oil in Malaysia, palm production in Malaysia is vital for the economy of its country but as it is destroying most of the environment as you can see in the picture. Palm oil plantations are under increasing scrutiny for their effects of the environment. There is also a concern over displacement and disruption of human and animal populations due to palm oil cultivation. There is a huge concern that not all the palm oil productions are sustainable, with issues relating to biodiversity, soil degradation, local people and many others. Development of these areas has resulted in the destruction of tropical rainforests and has threatened the rich biodiversity in these ecosystems. In particular orangutan habitats have been threatened by palm oil production. In 1900, there were about 315,000 orangutans. Today, fewer than 50,000 exist in the
Wagner Ona Geography Year 11
forests. Split into small groups with little chance of survival. Most of the scientists say that palm oil industry is the biggest threat to the orangutans as that is driven to extinction.
Indonesia is also a takes big part of producing palm oil and the destruction of tropical forests has a big impact on many things. For example the production of palm oil affects the Indonesians because industrialized palm oil production leads to soil degradation and water contamination. With that comes the climate effect; when peat land is cleared for new plantations, huge amounts of carbon dioxide escape. Also the effect on people is very bad, as the land they use for plantation is often taken from lend as they don’t have sufficient knowledge to judge the situation accurately. Plus tens of millions of Indonesians rely directly on rainforests for their living hoods. A single palm oil plantation can destroy the forests, watersheds, and forest resources for thousands on Indonesians. Living the entire forest communities to face poverty, many for the first time. Not only for people but palm oil also has a huge effect on the environment. For example Palm oil makes air pollution, the burning of forests to clear land for oil palm plantations in Indonesia. The smokes have been so bad that airports have been closed for some days. Once the fire has started the forests burn un controllable both underground and above for months. And that contributes a lot to global warming. There is also Water and soil pollution. For every metric tonne of palm oil, 2.5 metric tons effluent is generated from processing the palm oil in mills. Direct release of this can cause freshwater pollution and can affect biodiversity of people. Again palm oil produces soil erosion which is due to forest cleaning and plantation establishment when the soil is left uncovered, the damages are almost irreversible as the eroded areas require more fertilizer and other inputs to clean and this is hard. As I said before the orangutans are also being threatened due to the deforestation, they have no-where to go and with people who don’t know what orangutans are they take them as hostiles and kill innocent orangutans. Many of which were moving out of their homes due to deforestation. The word conservation means to preserve something from getting loss, damage, or neglect. This is what we should be doing in the forests. We are losing earths greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of earths now there are about a 6% and experts estimate that rainforests will be consumed in less than 40 years. We should start taking care more of the forests, we haven’t discovered every little thing that they have to offer us, and it has many medicines to be discovered. Experts estimate that we are losing 137 plants, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That is the equal to 50,000 species a years. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. Only 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists. Plus in the rainforest there is many variety of fruits.
Wagner Ona Geography Year 11
The word sustainable means to keep in existence, to maintain something alive. This can be done with palm oil, have sustainable palm oil. There several companies that are doing this right now. Certified sustainable palm oil and palm kernel is produced by palm oil plantations which have been independently audited and found to comply with the global agreed environmental standards revised by Sustainable palm oil. The forest can be used for palm oil in a way that it isn’t destroyed; WWF is already taking part at this by contacting big companies to find how to improve the palm oil production. Every company argues for what they want, for example WWF says they want nature conservation benefits for communities. To benefit small farmers so that there isn’t any one left without jobs. They can produce palm oil without logging trees as little farmers are doing right know some of the main aims of having sustainable palm oil to conserve the rainforests are fair working conditions, local peoples lands and rights protected, no clearing of primary forests and wildlife is conserved. To ensure that they meet all the standards of sustainable palm oil a certified RSPO is sent to verification each plantation. In conclusion if palm oil production keeps like it is today, we are going to ran out of tropical rainforests. Which are crucial to our lives because they have medicines plus they give oxygen for the earth, more and more animals and species are going to be killed if continues like it is. And they will get to a certain point where there are no more trees. We can change this by everyone agreeing with sustainable palm oil production and offering ideas to not have deforestation at the rainforests. There is time to reverse the damaging trends, but it is going to be very hard as there is a lot of it. And finally Palm oil production is great because they are part of many things we use in our days life, but if it isn’t produce correctly it can be serious for the earth and for us as we would have no rainforests.
Bibliography CIDSE. Indonesia: “Indigenous people suffer the palm oil boom” . 09 de november de 2012. http://www.cidse.org/content/articles/just-food/biofuels-indigenous-people-in-indonesia-suffer-fromthe-palm-oil-boom.html (último acceso: 28 de december de 2013). green palm organization . About palm oil. http://greenpalm.org/en/about-palm-oil/what-is-palm-oil (último acceso: 11 de December de 2013). GreenPalm.org . Enviromental impact of palm oil production. http://www.greenpalm.org/en/aboutpalm-oil/environmental-impact (último acceso: 26 de december de 2013). GreenPalm.org. What is sustainable palm oil? (último acceso: 4 de january de 2014). GreenPeace. Palm oil. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil (último acceso: 21 de december de 2013).
Wagner Ona Geography Year 11 Orangutan Organization. The orangutan project . 2013. http://www.orangutan.org.au/index.htm (último acceso: 11 de December de 2013). Rain tree. Rainforest Facts. 21 de December de 2012. http://www.raintree.com/facts.htm#.Up81e7Qx41N (último acceso: 4 de December de 2013). RAN.ORG. Problem with Palm Oil Factsheet . http://ran.org/problem-palm-oil-factsheet (último acceso: 28 de december de 2013). Save The Amazon. The Disappearing Rainforests. http://www.savetheamazon.org/rainforeststats.htm (último acceso: 01 de january de 2014). Wikipedia . WikipediaTropical Rainforest . 24 de November de 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_rainforest (último acceso: 3 de December de 2013). Wikipedia. Social and enviromental impact of palm oil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_and_environmental_impact_of_palm_oil (último acceso: 26 de december de 2013). WWF GLOBAL. Enviromental & Social impacts of Palm Oil. http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/palm_oil/environmental_impacts/ (último acceso: 30 de december de 2014). WWF. What is palm oil? http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work/saving_the_natural_world/forests/palm_oil/ (último acceso: 4 de December de 2013). YOUTUBE. How can palm oil be more sustainable? The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and WWF's role in it . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3b4n7Mz1YE (último acceso: 6 de january de 2014).
